Sunday, 16 February 2014

Saturday was my first Drawing workshop for adults. I have done them in schools before and with teachers but as I had been asked to run some initial workshops to test the waters at the new Burnley Arts Centre home of Burnley Youth Theatre. (Its new name from March).

We started with coffee and a round robin of what people thought they were terrified of.
I gave them a piece of willow with a bit of charcoal on the end and away they went mark making using the whole of the arm to control the willow. Some of the participants became attached to the willow and took it home to practice. We carried on with tactile drawing and continuous line all the time learning how to use the charcoal with more sensitivity and also learning how to see what we were drawing.

Considering at the beginning they all said they were terrified I think you will agree the drawings are marvelous. Practice is the key and all went home with some charcoal their new friend and some paper to practice. It was a good day. The new venue is lovely too, a little bit warmer than the mill and easy access to parking etc and no busy roads to cross so hopefully there will be more to come.

Discussions at the end of the class suggested a monthly Saturday morning Drawing group exploring techniques and using different media so If anyone is interested please let me know and I can add you to the list for future workshops and also if we get enough interest a new drawing group.

Monday, 10 February 2014

The drawings will be winging their way to Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford tomorrow the larger are top set of 4 will be around £65ish and the smaller £55 ish I think as I am not sure on their commission but they are framed and a perfect gift don't you think :-) the bottom drawing one may be going to be a raffle prize for a local charity.....watch this space

Clay hares in progress, these are smaller than I have made before so we shall see I had a good day making it just was bitterly cold today in the mill.

But the on line version has invented some children! I don't have any to be honest not sure I am grown up enough :-) but made me laugh and a few friends to ask questions especially those who I haven't seen for a while!

Monday, 3 February 2014

Research day today for our new Arteach touring exhibition. We are waiting on our ACE application to be able to launch a fabulous Educational package so fingers crossed but today was about the artists and exploring the landscape around Old Lancashire Tales.